Pokémon Steel Souls
by yoloswagforarceus
Summary: Alex and his brother have always been close, and when they received their first pokémon, they planned on going on an adventure with each other! However, Alex's brother goes missing the day after they get their pokémon, and no one knows where he is! Join Alex on his search for his brother. Along the way he'll meet new friends, enemies, frenemies and more!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Pokémon by any means. If I did, I would be filthy rich and out doing things.

Also, first time author here, so feedback is much appreciated. Don't be afraid to tell me if I suck, just try to keep it PG in terms of language, por favor. It it appears that enough people are lost on certain points, I will attempt to elaborate further in the pre-story sections like these. Thanks, and have fun reading! I'll try to update every few days or so.

**_Chapter One_**

Sunlight shone through a gap in the curtains, moats of dust drifting lazily through it. Alex was deeply asleep, oblivious to the time of day. Suddenly, his eyes parted slowly, and he gazed at his alarm clock through bleary eyes. He vaguely registered the time on the clock before yawning and stretching. Mid-stretch, however, he froze. He slowly returned his gaze back to the alarm clock. A shout of dismay left his throat. It was 1:00 in the afternoon! Alex leaped out of bed and hurriedly got dressed.

He rushed out of his room and down the hall. His mother was in the kitchen, humming to herself while she read the newspaper. As he dashed past the kitchen towards the front door, she called out "Get the mail while you're out, would you?", but he was already gone. Alex rushed down the path leading from the front porch of his house. He ran as fast as he could into town, past the market and past the Pokécenter. He narrowly missed a collision with a passing biker, but still he kept running. Soon he reached a large,white three-story building and he barreled through the double doors. "I'm here professor Redwood, I'm here!" he called out. A scholarly looking man emerged from a bookshelf and frowned at him.

"It's not like you to be late, Alex." he admonished. "I know, professor. When my alarm clock went off this morning, I must have accidentally hit off instead of snooze" Alex apologized. "But now I'm here and ready." "Yes well…" the professor trailed off, with a troubled expression on his face. At that expression, Alex's hopes began to fall. "Well what, professor?" he asked. "You were supposed to get the first pick, being the top of your class and all, but since you didn't show up I had to let the others pick before you." said Professor Redwood. Alex felt tears sting his eyes. "They're-they're all gone?" he croaked. He'd been looking forward to getting a Pokémon for two weeks when they were told they'd get to choose once the school year was over. "Well, not all of them, but the starters were all snatched up right away." said the professor. Alex's hopes were lifted again.

Starters are overrated anyways he thought. Just because they're pretty rare doesn't mean they're super strong or anything. "Who's left?" he asked. "Come look." said Professor Redwood, gesturing for Alex to follow him. Alex followed Professor Redwood out to the back of the building, which was an enormous fenced off area. It spanned about three acres, with all sorts of mini-environments dotting the place. There was a large pond/small lake, a few hills clumped together, a tiny grove and a small area that was completely stone except for the pits of lava dotting it. "Wow" Alex breathed. Then he frowned. "Professor, where's all the pokémon?" he asked. "Ah, most of them are gone." the professor said, looking at Alex sympathetically.

"So who's left?" Alex asked again, swallowing hard. "Well, we've got a few fire types, some water pokémon...we're fresh out of grass types though" The professor counted off. "What are those hills for?" Alex asked. "Oh, those are for rock types, fighting types, you know, those pokémon. I'm not sure if we have any there now. Well, head in and make your choice. Here, take this food. Give it to a pokémon and it'll follow you. Bring it back here when you've chosen." Professor Redwood encouraged. Alex took the food and the professor opened a gate in front of them. Alex stepped through and took a deep breath before continuing.

He walked slowly. It was all so surreal, like he was still in bed and dreaming about this. He was finally going to get a pokémon! He headed to the fire area, since it was closest. He saw a Magby swimming in a small pool of lava, and a Numel was confusedly bumping its head into a boulder nearby. A Slugma oozed out from under a rock to look at Alex curiously. A Ponyta trotted up to him, expecting treats. When it saw he had none, it clopped away. _I've never been particularly crazy about fire types._ Alex thought. _Not since Mr. Smitty's Flareon accidentally sneezed embers on me._

Alex moved on to the pond and looked down into the water. Where his reflection should have been, a Wooper face instead returned his gaze. A Buizel jumped out of the water, clutching a Shellder in its paws. The Shellder, however, had no intention of being lunch and blasted itself out of the Buizel's grasp with a Water Gun. The only other pokémon were a Goldeen swimming by and a Slowpoke fishing with its tail. Alex left the pond and started towards the forest, but then he remembered they were out of grass type pokémon. So instead he jogged towards the hills.

At first there seemed to be nothing there, but Alex stumbled across a small cave. He entered and saw nothing. Before he could turn to go, however, he caught a glint in the corner of his eye. He turned to inspect the source of the shine but found only a sword leaning against the cave wall. "A sword." he said aloud. "Why would a sword be here?" Then, it opened its eye.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Still don't own the Pokémon franchise. Darn.

_**Chapter**_ Three

Alex stumbled backwards in surprise. The sword blinked and hovered off the floor. "Whoah, what are you?" Alex asked quietly. "Hone." the sword replied with a deep, vibrating noise. Alex had no idea how it spoke, as no mouth had opened. Alex put his hand in his pocket and took out the food he'd been given, holding it out to the pokémon. Something about it told him it was the one. This was his pokémon.

The pokémon, upon seeing the food, leaned its scabbard-which it had been holding with some sort of tassel-towards his hand. Taking the hint, Alex dumped the food into the scabbard. He had no idea how it would eat, but oh well. He exited the cave and turned to see if the sword pokémon was following him. It was. Alex felt a surge of happiness. He began running towards the gate, with the sword close behind. He reached the gate where the professor was waiting. Alex was panting from the sprint over. The sword, however, appeared to be fine.

"Professor," he said between breaths, "I've chosen my new partner." "Ah," the professor said, eyes twinkling, "and where did you find this one?" "He was in a cave in that hill area" Alex said, pointing back towards the hills. "What is it?" "That, my dear boy, is a Honedge" the professor informed him. "It is a steel and ghost type. Quite a peculiar matchup, if you ask me. While you were deciding I went inside and gathered all of the pokéballs for the pokémon out here. Here is the one belonging to Honedge" the professor said, offering a pokéball to Alex.

Alex took it and examined it. On the front of the top half of the capsule was an image of a sword. He pointed it towards Honedge and pushed the button. The pokéball opened and a beam of red light popped out, enveloping the Honedge. It was turned into red light as well, and was sucked into the pokéball for safekeeping. The pokéball closed, and Alex let out a whoop of happiness. Then, he remembered something that made his blood freeze. His brother was supposed to get a pokémon today as well! Alex had been in charging of waking him up since his alarm was broken!

Alex quickly pulled his cellphone out of his back pocket and dialed his brother's number. It rang a few times before a sleepy voice answered "Hello?" "Brandon, I'm so sorry but I forgot to wake you up! Get over here as fast as possible. There are still some pokémon left, but hurry!" There was no response as Brandon hung up. Four minutes later, a very angry looking boy came into sight, charging straight for them.

He was around 4' 8", with a messy mop of long brown hair. He was kind of scrawny, but there was a fire in his eyes that made him look fierce nonetheless. A sharp nose rested under a set of brown eyes, which at the moment looked furious. He ran straight up to them, but before he could say a word to Alex the professor opened the gate and hurried him inside. "Go," Professor Redwood ushered, "choose your partner!" Brandon glared at Alex but dashed inside. He ran straight over to the fire area, but then turned around and came back.

"Uh, professor?" he inquired. "How do I get one?" "Oh yes, here take this" Professor Redwood said, handing him a handful of pokémon food. "Feed a pokémon and it'll-" the professor explained, but Brandon was already gone. The professor sighed. "That younger brother of yours is so impatient" he groused. "Tell me about it" Alex agreed. Brandon had arrived back at the fire area and held his hand out to the Magby. It sniffed the food curiously before munching it. Brandon jogged back with his new pokémon in tow. Professor Redwood handed him a pokéball with a flame design on it.

Brandon took it and retrieved his Magby. Then he stalked up to Alex and said "You were supposed to wake me!" "I know I was," Alex said placatingly, "and I'm sorry. I got up late too, though, and rushed out the door. I was in such a hurry that I forgot about waking you!" Brandon huffed and glared some more, but then he grinned as the excitement of his new pokémon set in. He turned to the professor. "Hey professor?" Brandon asked. "Hmm?" the professor said, lost in thought. "What moves does my pokémon know?" "Ah, Magby knows Leer, Smog, Ember and Thunder Punch" the professor said, still gazing off into the distance. "Thunder Punch!?" Brandon yelled, surprised. "Yes," the professor responded, "it's an egg move. Magby knew it upon hatching." "What about Honedge?" Alex asked. The professor finally snapped out of his train of thought and looked at Alex confused before his expression cleared in understanding "Oh, Honedge. It knows Swords Dance, Tackle,Fury Cutter and Shadow Sneak. Shadow Sneak is also an egg move" the professor informed him. "Cool" said Alex, looking at his pokéball with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Now both of you should go show your mother" Professor Redwood suggested. "Alright" the boys said in unison. They raced home to show their mother their new friends. The professor chuckled. "Oh to be young again" he said to himself. He shook his head and headed back inside. One of his assistants was waiting for him.

"What is it?" asked the professor. "The two people who said they were going to take on the Pokédex challenge have changed their minds" the assistant lamented. "Hmm" the professor said, now deep in thought. "We shall have to find someone else then."


	3. Chapter 3

I don't know why my last chapter was labeled three, whoops! I assure you this is the real number three! In this chapter there'll be a bit of fore"shadowing". You'll get the pun later when you read.

_**Chapter Three**_

Alex and Brandon skidded to a halt in front of their house. "Ha, loser!" exclaimed Brandon. "No way," Alex protested, "I beat you all the way!" The two argued about who had won until their mother stepped out of the house smiling. "You both won" she said. "I saw you through the window. It was a really close tie." Grudgingly, the two boys accepted that answer and stopped arguing.

Then, Alex smiled. "Mom, look at my pokémon I got today!" he said, tossing the ball in the air as he did so. It opened and a red beam of light shot out, hitting the ground and taking the shape of Honedge. Alex caught the ball and smiled proudly. "Hone. Edge" said the honedge in its reverberating speech. "Oh my" said Alex's mother. "That's quite the pokémon."Oh yeah, well look at mine!" shouted Brandon, releasing his Magby. "Mag!" cried the pokémon, just as it did a face-plant.

An embarrassed Brandon looked at Alex and his mom before helping his Magby up. "You okay Magby?" he asked with concern. "By" responded the red pokémon. "So what moves do they know?" inquired their mother. "Honedge knows Swords Dance, Tackle, Fury cutter and Shadow Sneak" proclaimed Alex proudly. "Hmm...well, if Shadow Sneak is an egg move, then that would put Honedge around a level of five" said their mother thoughtfully. "My Magby knows stronger moves! It knows Leer, Smog, Ember and Thunderpunch! Watch. Magby, use Thunderpunch on that tree!" ordered Brandon, pointing at a tree.

Magby charged the tree with its fist pulled back, glowing yellow and sparking. It slammed the tree's trunk with its fist, electricity going everywhere. When Magby moved, they all saw the smoking and charred crater in the tree's trunk. "Oh yeah?" challenged Alex, "Well, let's show them what we can do, Honedge! Honedge, use Swords Dance, then hit that tree with a Fury Cutter" commanded Alex, pointing to a different, larger tree. Honedge began to spin and glow, and white swords appeared, circling over its head.

Then, when the swords had abated and the glow was gone, it flew towards the target tree. Its blade began to glow green and it unleashed a barrage of slashes onto the tree. After a minute, the tree toppled, its severely damaged trunk unable to support its wait. "Alright Honedge! Good job!" said Alex, eyes shining with pride for his pokémon. "Alright boys" their mother spoke up after have been silent while she watched. "Let's try not to massacre the forest while we're out here. Now, who wants lunch?" she asked.

Suddenly, Brandon's stomach growled, followed closely by Alex's. They both looked at each other and laughed. Their mother smiled and said "I'll whip up some sandwiches. Who wants what?" "PB and J for me, please" requested Alex. "Just ham and cheese for me" said Brandon. "Alright, they'll be ready in a minute, so don't stay out for too much longer!" called their mom as she went inside. "Psst" whispered Brandon. "Psst!" "What?" asked Alex. "Shh!" shushed Brandon. "Keep quiet!" "What?" asked Alex, quieter this time. "Let's go have a pokemon battle!" whispered Brandon, eyes shining.

Alex's eyes lit up as well, and they headed off into the arrived at a clearing they knew well and turned to face each other. "Standard rules?" asked Alex as he brought out Honedge "Yep" responded Brandon, releasing his Magby. They both watched each other for a minute until Brandon called "Ember, Magby!" Magby breathed in, then blew out a cloud of embers. "Honedge, dodge!" cried Alex. Honedge jumped to the side, letting the fiery cloud pass. "Honedge, Swords Dance" ordered Alex. "Hit him with a Thunderpunch while he's distracted!" Brandon commanded his Magby.

Unfortunately, Magby timed its punch wrong and went sailing past Honedge when one of its twirls moved Honedge out of the way. Then, its dance was over. "Tackle!" yelled Alex. Honedge slammed its hilt into magby hard enough to send it into the nearest tree. "Give yourself some cover with Smog" Brandon told Magby. Magby breathed out a thick black fog that quickly enveloped the clearing. Alex cried out in dismay. He could no longer see Honedge.

"Magby," Brandon said, "use Ember like a spread shot in front of you. When you hear Honedge cry out, hit that area with more Embers!" Magby must have done what it was told, because a cry of pain came from Honedge, somewhere in the thick smoke. More intense cries soon followed. "Now that you've got its location, use Thunderpunch!" called Brandon, glee in his voice. "Honedge, jump as high as you can! As you come down, use Fury Cutter around you! If you here Magby, hit it with a tackle" Alex said, hoping his desperate strategy would work.

For a few seconds, there was agonizing silence. Then, a cry of pain from Magby, followed by a scream as it was presumably rammed clear across the clearing. The smoke began to thin enough for Alex to see what was happening. He saw magby laying face down-rear up near Brandon, with Honedge in the middle of the clearing. Magby slowly began to rise, but Alex ordered "Honedge, hit it with a Shadow Sneak and end this!" Honedges shadow began to extend towards Magby, where it lifted itself off the ground and stuck the red pokémon square in the back. Magby was done.

Brandon returned it to its pokéball. "No fair" whined Brandon. "I would have won!" "Yeah, well…" Alex said, eyes shining as Honedge came back to him. He didn't quite know how to pet Honedge, so he stroked its scabbard. Apparently that was correct because he was rewarded with a happy humming. He returned it and a voice reached his ears. Brandon heard it too, because he turned towards it. "Boys!" called their mother. "Time to eat!" "Yum!" shouted Brandon happily, his defeat replaced by the thought of food. The two boys raced back towards the house, blissfully unaware of the shadowy figure who had been watching their battle.


End file.
